Jo Middlemass joins the primary care research team

Hello!  My name is Jo Middlemass (on the email as Joan, but haven’t answered to that name for many, many years!)  I am the newest ‘addition’ to the primary care team which is part of the Community and Health Research Group in the School of Health & Social Care.

Jo Middlemass joins the Community and Health Research Group

After spending the last five years in Nottingham working as a Research Fellow on the  Genetics in Primary Care research programme and also as a Research & Evaluation Fellow for NHS Nottinghamshire County, it is like ‘coming  back home’ to Lincolnshire, where I worked for a number of years in NHS Lincolnshire PCT both as Clinical Governance Manager and also as a research facilitator.  I have a nursing background and have worked in general practice in a variety of different roles.  I am also currently nearing the end (she says optimistically!) of my PhD at Nottingham University, which is about behavioural change to prevent heart disease and the use of the Transtheoretical/Stages of Change model in primary care.
The research project that I will be working on is called ENACT, (Exploring social Networks to Augment Cognitive behavioural Therapy which is investigating the use of computerized CBT for insomnia, utilizing social networks). We are particularly involved in the initial qualitative research that will inform the development of the computerized programme. It’s a role that I am particularly looking forward to.
The study was publicized in the local press last week:

New studies and researchers

Last year was a very active period for the School of Health & Social Care and the Community and Health Research Group. During 2009/10 we submitted over 30 bids to a value of over £5M. We were successful in 17 of 25 of the bids for which we were notified of an outcome to a value of nearly £1M. Successful research outputs including peer reviewed publications in national and international journals, conference outputs, editorials and books/chapters which are being posted on the Research Repository.

The group includes two new research fellows, Dr Zowie Davy and Dr Markos Klonizakis. Fiona Togher joined us as a research assistant, working on the Ambulance Services Cardiovascular Quality Initiative (ASCQI: Health Foundation, £475k).

Jo Middlemass joins us in November from Nottingham University working on a new study; Exploring social Networks to Augment Cognitive behavioural Therapy (ENACT: EPSRC, £465k) which was featured in a recent BBC article:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11454894.

We are also recruiting for a new study Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination and risk of Stroke and TIA (IPVASTIA: Research for Patient Benefit, £103k) which follows the IPVAMI study published last month in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, “Influenza vaccination, pneumococcal vaccination and risk of acute myocardial infarction: matched case-control study”:http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/abstract/cmaj.091891v1. The findings have featured in international news media in the UK, Canada and USA: http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,616179348001_2021408,00.html.